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Then^Now. 



ORATION 



CHARLES A. SUMME 



OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



DELIVERED AT QUINCY, CALIFORNIA, JULY 4th, 1876. 






Published by Request of the Hearers 




.Q73 



THEN AND NOW. 



Oration Delivered at Quincj , July 4th, 1876, by 
Hon. Clias A. Sumner, i&^s- 



The President of the Day introduced the Orator of the Day, Charles A. 

Sumner, of San Francisco. Mr. Sumner said : 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gen- Turkish tyranny that has crushed their coun- 

tlemen— Fellow Citizens :— The one hun- try for a thousand years, have instructed their 

dretb anniversary of the adoption of the clans to gather before their tents this day 

Declaration of Independence by the Congress and listen, and applaud, and adore the God of 

of the United .Colonies, or States, of North battles, after the manner of their fathers 

America : All Hail ! while the bands of their battalions commend 

Forty millions of people on this continent their supplications for victory by an accom- 
greet the morning sun of this day with the pstniment on the shrill clarions of the Orient- 
grandest emphasis of patriotic exultation, striking the newly learned notes of Hail Co- 
in a thousand cities of the land, the opening lnmbia, Yankee Doodle, and the National 
moment for rejoicings has been announced Anthem of the American Union, 
by the loudest concert of artillery and the " Proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
peal of ponderous bells. In ten thousand unto all the inhabitants thereof. " 
towns and vilages and hamlets, the propor- They who see from the design the inevitable 
tion of possible welcome has been uttered ; existence of a Creator, will confess without 
and over all the land the stirring roll of the superstition the Providential direction that 
drum, and the jubilant blare of the bugle, long before the date of its authentic utterance 
and the long processions of bayonet-bear- placed these words upon the iron shoulders of 
mg and regalia-clad men and flower-gar- the bell that announced from the steeple of 
landed children, and the raising and decorat- Independence Hall in Philadelphia, on the 6th 
ing of memorial and triumphal arches, and of July, one hundred years ago, that the Dec- 
the uncovering of marble statues of revolu- laration of Independence had been adopted 
tionary heroes, and the earnest speech of by the authorized representatives of the thir- 
proud reminiscence and hopeful prophecy, teen colonies. The tones that were heard 
are among the high testimonials that are be- that day by those who were within the literal 
ing heard and witnessed this day. circuit of its vibrations have been renewed 

JS or is this even a hint of all of recorded de- in every decade, as a stimulant and a sonorous 

monstration and contemporaneous magnetic telling of brave and noble advances by other 

incident which deserves our recognition at peoples towards the securing or maintaining 

this moment of time. In a thousaud foreign of the principles of constitutional freedom, 

sea-ports that flag is flung from the mast- It is a day for rejoicing in the calendar of 

head of every ship in the harbor ; nor does the civilized world ! Let it be so. Let the 

there gaze upon it one intelligent man, pulsations of intensest joy find perfect health 

woman, or child, without some conception of in unrestrained exuberance. Let the full 

its significance, without some comprehension license be given and availed for the heartiest 

ol its history, without some audible prayer expressions of congratulations, and love, and 

tor the perpetuity of those institutions whose happiness, and pride. And let no man with 

one hundred years of life it betokens, and mean and cynical devotion to the ordinary 

whose flourishing vigor at this day it defiantly quiet of human existence and the gentleness 

proclaims. f p ar i or propriety seek to check or abate the 

And as we gather here, a constituent assem- noise of the loud timbrel, or the great shout- 

bly in this beautiful valley of the Sierras, to ings of a free-born and liberty-loving people 

render our humble tribute of commemora- on the earth. 

tion, we seem to feel as a necessary, inevi- Despite all the depressions which may be 

table, and excellent advantage of our geo- complainingly said to belong to the temporary 

graphical position, that the atmosphere comes conditions of trade, we are sure that no 

to us at this noonday surcharged with the stint in willing preparations, anywhere in 

echoes of celebrating voices, awakened in un- the land, will hinder or lessen the demonstra- 

numbered homes, rolling in one grand tide tions for this day. Despite all the profound 

Irom the Atlantic shores. An electric impulse misgivings that many may conscientiously en- 

and inspiration that comes from the salutations tertain, despite all the humiliation and shame 

and cheering of the vast multitude of our which all must confess on account of recent 

tellow-citizens who dwell beyond aud below revelations of ofiicial malfeasance and profli- 

us being borne in, as it were, by the winds of gacy in high places in the Government, the 

Heaven upon our swelling hearts. introductory time of these hours is fitly dedi- 

JNaymore: We seem to catch the strains of cated and devoted to the unqualified aud 

martial music, familiar and yet wonderfully grateful recognition of 'the fact that the Al- 

weird and wild in its far, faint accents. And mighty has cast our lines in pleasant places— 

as we listen for the haunting whisperings of in a Republic which, under the benign indu- 

tbat music, we remember that the chieftains ence of heaven, our fathers, with wise pur 

ol the half-barbaric tribes of Herzegovina, poses and robust faith, planted aud vindicated 

who have recently risen in arms against the through a long and bloody war ; sealing their 



THEN AND NOW. 



compact of freedom with the signature of 
enduring success, for us and for our children 
and oar children's children, and before the 
kingdoms of the globe. 

We are very glad, O, men and women and 
little children, we are very glad that we have 
lived to see this day. Our earliest ancestors, 
in the revolutionary years, dreamed of this 
day with full and longing hearts. Our latest 
fathers wished to be spared to behold this 
day, and died in hope for us. 

And ye sods of other nations and distant 
climes, who have come to dwell among us, 
and to partake in full measure and harmony 
of our priceless heritage of republican govern- 
ment ! Were it possible, your emotion of 
thankfulness should be greater than ours, as 
you mingle in the active commemoration of 
the events suggested for this day. Par, far 
across the waters, for many a weary year, 
your ancestors replied, by an abiding trust in 
their souls, to the sneers of kings and court- 
iers, as these declared that our system was 
impracticable and our national life near to its 
lit and ignominious doom. And so have their 
steadfast confidence and patient expectations 
been blessed unto their children, who are 
privileged to commune with us and of us to- 
day. 

And what a tremendous debt of obligation 
is ours to those who wrought out for us all 
this glorious framework of Government. 
Blessed fathers ! Your memories are very 
green in our hearts this day ! The long roll 
cannot be called within our brief limits of 
speech ; but for some of them — not as forget- 
ting or disparaging many others, equally as 
worthy of our oral register on this occasion — 
for some of them we must pronounce the 
names with reverent recollectiou. 

General George Washington ! Command- 
er-in-Chief of the American forces ! That 
name ! There is a fullness, a calmness, a 
syllabic grandeur in that name that befits the 
man. 

One hundred and one years ago yesterday 
morning, when forty-three years of age, he 
took command of the united forces of the 
Colonies, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, under 
an elm tree, which stands to this day and is 
known by his name. 

" Washington ! " Into whose presence, it 
has been testified, no man could come without 
a sense of profound respect, almost amounting 
to emotions of awe. In all history — look it 
over and over and over, ye young men of 
America — and we shall strive hereafter to en- 
force the worthiness of such an examination 
—in all history, the grandest military hero of 
any age ! No tire of fanaticism, no zeal born 
of prejudice and not according to sound 
knowledge of his cause, burned in his bosom. 
Assuming command of our armies when the 
idea of independence was abhorrent to him, 
he was taught by his observation and experi- 
ence concerning the home government, that 
nothing but independence would secure free- 
dom to the people of this land. Convinced of 
the truth of the situation, his duty was plain ; 
apprised of his duty, his purposes were heroic 
and inflexible. 

Well and prophetically wrote Representa- 
tive William Hooper, in 1778, . addressing 
Robert Morris : " Will posterity believe the 
tale ? When it shall be consistent with 
policy to give the history of that man from 
his first introduction into our service, how 
often America has been rescued from ruin 
by the mere strength of his genius and con- 
duct and courage, encountering every obstacle 



that want of money, men, arms, and ammu- 
nition could throw in his way — an impartial 
world will say to you that he is the greatest 
pan on earth. Misfortunes are the elements 
in which he shines, they are the groundwork 
on which his picture appears to the greatest 
advantage. He rises superior to them all ; 
they serve as foils to his fortitude and a 
stimulus to bring into view those great qual- 
ities which his modesty keeps concealed." 

O ! patriot of patriots ! We bend over 
thy lowly tomb this day with tears of thanks- 
giving, and our choicest words of honor. O, 

"Patient of toil, 
Serene amid alarms ! " 

We lift our eyes whence cometh that help 
he sought and found, when he passed beyond 
the camp and besought the God of battles. 
And we praise Him who bestowed this won- 
derful captain for us and for our political re- 
demption. 

So gentle as to draw from one of his 
severest — though a friendly — critic, the title 
of " The amiable Washington " ; and yet 
firm and resolute when the exigencies de- 
manded these qualities of a commander. 
And not without that quality for which he 
has little if any credit — the quality or sense 
of humor. This element in his composition 
was certainly illustrated, in conjunction with 
the positiveness of his will, when an appeal 
was made to him on behalf of several thous- 
and royalists, who desired to remain in the 
city of Boston after the evacuation by the 
British troops. Patriotic neighbors and 
petitioners joined with the parties most inter- 
ested in representing to Washington that 
these people " are very good people, and like 
yourself are firmly attached to the English 
Church. They promise that hereafter they 
will do nothing in the way of giving aid or 
comfort to the enemy." To this the reply 
was made by Washington : " I have no doubt 
they are very good people, and I hope that 
when they die they will all go to heaven ; 
but so far as I am concerned, they must go 
to Nova Scotia." 

Samuel Adams! Who was for " indepen- 
dence " from the beginning of operations ; 
and whose pen and voice, and unceasing 
activity in organizing forces against the 
Crown, were immense levers of influence 
towards the great consummation. His were 
the words of radical necessity, and duty, — 
"We must fight; we must have indepen- 
dence," — which met the swift echo and 
electric cheer of that peerless orator of the 
revolution, — 

Patrick Henry, of Virginia. 

Joseph Warren, who fell on Bunker Hill 
with the triumphant exclamation on his lips : 
" It is sweet to die for one's country." 0, 
blessed fathers ! Joseph Warren : Who on 
that day volunteered for service in company 
with a friend and comrade of different mould, 
but equal devotion : — 

Israel Putnam, of Connecticut- " Old 
Put," as the boys loved to call him; whose 
counsel was more than half the secret of that 
day's virtual victory : " Save your ammuni- 
tion, boys, save your ammunition ; and don't 
fire at the grannies until you can see the 
whites of their eyes." 

John Adams ! The youthful cousin of Sam. 
Adams, and the worthy kinsman of so inde- 
fatigable a leader — a scholar, orator, and au- 
thor, whose contributions to our arms and our 
diplomacy have not been more than half ap- 
preciated unto this day. 



THEN AND NOW. 



Nathaniel Green ! Whose campaigns were 
such illustrations of military genius as pro- 
voked unwilling tributes of admiration from 
the veterans of Continental Europe. 

Tom Paine. Of whose political writings, 
known under the titles of " Common Sense," 
and" The Crisis," tens of thousands of copies 
were scattered throughout the land at a most 
critical period, and drew from Washington 
immediate and thereafter frequent testimon- 
ials of appreciation and gratitude ; and from 
whom no alleged subsequent misconduct 
should take a large meed of popular acknowl- 
edgment at this centennial celebration. 

General Joseph Reed. Who occupied an 
important position of trust in the management 
of affairs, and who, when approached by a 
British emissary with the proffer of gold 
and rank for his renunciation of the cause of 
the colonies, declared that he was a very 
poor man, but such as he was, the King of 
England had not money enough to buy him. 
O, that he had been endowed with centennial 
vigor ; that he might have lived unto this 
day, and occupied one corresponding position 
of authority — that he might have held the 
office of Secretary of War during the present 
Administration. 

General Richard Montgomery. Foremost 
officer in the attack upon Quebec, on the 13th 
of December, 1775 ; who was killed in the 
very gra \) of victory, and by the only volley 
fired by the retreating British soldiery. The 
house where his body was laid cutis still pre- 
served in one of the principal streets of Que- 
bec. And though more modern and elegant 
buildings surround it, the homage which visit- 
ing Americans pay to such patriotic valor is 
illustrated in its preservation, and in the 
crowds that often in the summer season 
throng that little cottage. 

John Stark. Who raised a body of troops 
in the Green Mountains ; and while despond- 
ency was spread over the land on account 
of disasters elsewhere, be went out and stood 
upon the vaunted pathway of a large body of 
mercenary Hessians that were passing to Bur- 
goyne's reinforcement, with this appeal and 
prophecy to his men : " The enemy must fall 
into our hands before night, or Molly Stark's a 
widow." And confronting and defeating this 
and the following troops who were hasten- 
ing to Burgoyne's assistance, he heard the 
welcome of his spouse and the plaudits of his 
country. 

Ethan Allen . Who early in the contest 
made the successful demand for the surren- 
der of Fort Ticonderoga, " In the name of 
Almighty God and the Continental Con- 
gress." And who, afterwards, when a 
prisoner in England, and the nominal guest 
of a British Lord, was asked if the portrait 
of Washington was not fitly placed in the 
ante-room leading to the vault of a large 
public street drain in the city of London — 
(in which ante-room large numbers of the 
lowest orders gathered, with the request for 
permission to search for lost articles of value 
in the filth of the sewer) — replied in the 
affirmative, with this additional remark : 
" If that portrait does not make the Brit- 
ishers get down on their knees and hunt for 
something they won't find, I don't know 
where you can get a picture that will produce 
that result." 

Paul Jones. Who in his refitted Indiaman, 
the Bon Homme Richard, on the 23d of Sep- 
tember, 1779, engaged in that memorable en- 
counter with the Serapis, capturing both it 
and its companion, the Countess of Scarr- 



borough, and the convoyed fleet of merchant- 
men, after a three hours' contest of unparal- 
leled audacity and persistency. "I thought 
he was blown to pieces a dozen times," said 
the Commander of the Serapis, "and each 
time was astouuded to discover his wreck still 
fastened to us. And when I did actually 
scuttle him, I found him on my own deck in 
full command ! " 

John Barry. The first naval officer who 
held the rank of Commodore in the service of 
the United States. Born in Ireland, he came 
to this country when fifteen years of age, and 
obtained such credit as a seaman that he was 
appointed by Congress, in 1776, to the com- 
mand of the brig Lexington, and shortly 
afterwards to the command of the frigate 
Effingham. On this latter named vessel he 
first displayed the American flag as at present 
constructed — the first Commodore to give that 
banner to the breeze on the ocean, and in 
successful conflict with the enemy. General 
Howe offered him sixty thousand' dollars and 
the command of a British frigate on condition 
of his deserting the American cause. He re- 
ceived and dismissed the proposition with a 
laugh of derision. 

Francis Marion. Famous as a skirmisher 
in the Carolinas, and distinguished by his 
action at Fort Moultrie and the siege at 
Charleston. His own chivalrous bravery, 
and the enthusiasm with which he inspired 
his troops has been well depicted in the song 
of our ancient bard — attributed to Marion's 
men : 

" Our band is few, but true and tried ; 
Our leader swift and bold ; 
The British soldier trembles 
When Marion's name is told. 

Our fortress is the good green wood, 

Our tent the cypress tree ; 
We know the forest round us, 

As ths seamen know the sea. 

We know its walls of thorny vines, 

Its glades of reedy grass, 
Its soft and silent islands, 

Within the dark morass." 

Nathan Hale. That youthful hero and 
martyr of the Revolution, whose last words, 
as he ascended the gallows to which he had 
been condemned by the British commander 
at New York, should be forever engraved on 
our grateful memories : " I only regret that I 
have but one life to lose for my country." 

John Hancock. Who said he would en- 
deavor to write his name in so plain and large 
a text that even so ignorant a man as the 
King of Great Britain could spell it out. 

Charles Carroll. Who, when "it was sug- 
gested that his name on the list of signers to 
the Declaration of Independence might be 
taken for that of another person adjacent to 
his estate, seized the pen again and affixed, 
the words " of Carrollton ; " saying, "If the 
British tyrant wants to know where I am, or 
where my property is, he can find both me 
and mine." 

Jacob Duche. Rector of Christ's Church, 
Philadelphia. Who issued a number of influ- 
ential tracts in behalf of the cause of the 
Colonies ; but who, on account of his alliances 
in the Anglican Church, was for some time 
distrusted by the dissenters about him. After 
some wrangling in regard to the choice of an 
officiating minister for the occasion ; owing to 
the persistency of John Adams, a Congre- 
gationalism Jacob Duche was requested to 
open the first Centennial Congress with 



THEN AND NOW. 



prayer. After a silent supplication— (as lie tells 
us in his diary) — that God would forgive him 
for all his prayers unwittingly offered in be- 
half of a tyrant — he broke forth into such an 
eloquent extemporaneous appeal for the cause 
of liberty, and for the union of the Colonists 
in resolution for independence — if honorable 
peace could not otherwise be had — that many 
of the delegates fell from their knees to the 
floor, prostrate, and arose at the conclusion of 
the prayer with strong cries of " amen," and 
with tears coursing down their cheeks. 

Old Ben Franklin ! Bless his memory for- 
ever and forever ! Old Beu ; who desired 
that Canada and Ireland should join in the 
original prolest against Great Britain. Old 
Ben, who would not wear livery in any 
court in Christendom. Old Ben "Franklin, 
whose figure is one of the most familiar and 
beloved objects of portraiture in every 
household in the land. In combination : 
philosopher, statesman, and diplomatist of un- 
rivaled, undying, and increasing fame — that 
human treasure-house of practical wisdom, 
political thought, and ever-ready, suggest- 
ive wit. He stirred np anew, and to a jubi- 
lant pitch, the hope of souls most sorely 
tried in the dark days of the Revolution, by 
the shrewd publication of a challenging re- 
sponse to the boast of the British ministry. 
He said: "Great Britain, at an expense of 
three million pounds sterling, has killed one 
hundred and fifty Yankees in the campaign ; 
which is twenty thousand pounds a head ; 
and at Bunker Hill she gained a mile of 
ground, half of which she lost by our taking 
position on Plowed Hill. During this time 
sixty thousand children have been born in 
America ; and the boys and girls are marry- 
ing as fast as possible, and raising large fam- 
ilies for future reiuforcements." 

LaFayette! Brilliant representative of the 
chivalry of the sunny land of France ! Whose 
biography is more enchanting than a romance, 
and deserves to be among the illustrated patri- 
otic memories of every American youth. La- 
Fayette : who left the comforts and luxuries of 
a palace when only nineteen years of age, to 
serve with and become the bosom friend and 
companion of General Washington. What a 
picture of pure devotion to the cause of Lib- 
erty— LaFayette and Steuben and De Kalb 
and Du Portrail abiding in the cheerless 
dugouts of Valley Forge through the long 
winter of 1777-'8; enduring all manner of 
physical privations without a murmur, and 
lending all the support of their counsel, skill, 
and courage to the great commander of our 
armies. 

Jonathan Trumbull — The war governor of 
Connecticut ; whom Washington denominated 
" a main pillar of support." From whom 
our favorite nick-name has been derived — as 
Washington was wont to turn to him, in the 
midst of' his counsel on important occasions, 
with the remark: "Let us hear what 
Brother Jonathan has to say." 

Alexander Hamilton. Scarcely twenty years 
of age when be distinguished himself as an 
essayist in behalf of the principles for which 
the battles of the Revolution were fought ; 
whose writings were all-powerful in his day 
in promoting the cause of independence and 
constitutional government, and are no less 
worthy of reading and study now than when 
they first appeared in the ephemeral publica- 
tions of the last quarter of the eighteenth 
century. 

And that other name, which we must not 
omit to utter, though it has been on your 



tongues so often this day ; which may be 
properly reserved to close the list that I have 
space to select : the author of the Declaration 
which has been read to you on its one 
huudredth anniversary — Thomas Jefferson of 
Monticello. And yet what superfluous men- 
tion, when his words— our words, which he 
put into our mouths and hearts, and into the 
immortal literature of freedom — are ringing 
in our ears. 

Only this should now be said : — There has 
been much labored effort to show the begin- 
ning of our Revolution in the dim if not dis- 
tant past. Real scholars by the score and 
shallow pretenders to research and historical 
acumen by the hundreds, have professed to 
discover perfect parallels for our Republic in 
classic times or in ancient civilization — now 
in the islands of the sea, and now in the 
mountain fastnesses of the continent. Or 
they have affected to trace, step by step, a 
rising and concentrating sentimeut and cul- 
tivated judgmeut touching the things that 
belong to perfect liberty. Or tbey have 
given credit for the " Idea" to men of malig- 
nant and tyrannical dispositions, — a portion 
of whose writings condemned their deeds. In 
the light of true investigation and clear re- 
view this must be set aside. Most certainly 
the tracing is not legitimate back to the days 
of those institutions to which the flippant 
and the phlegmatic " philosophers," so- 
called, delight to point. No less a writer 
than DeQuincy has said : "' The Greeks and 
Romans,altbough so frantically republican and 
in some of their institutions so democratic, yet, 
on the other hand, never developed the idea of 
representative government. The elective 
principle was widely known amongst them. 
Public authority andjurisdiction were created 
and modified by the elective principle ; but 
never was this principle applied to the crea- 
tion or direction of public opiuiou. Strange 
indeed that so mighty a secret as that of del- 
egating public opinion to the custody of 
elected representatives, a secret which has 
changed the face of the world, should have 
been missed by the nations applying so vast 
an energy to the whole theory of public ad- 
ministration. But the truth, however para- 
doxical, is that, in Greece and Rome, no body 
of public opinion existed that could have 
furnished a standing ground for adverse 
paities. In all the discussions of Rome and 
Greece, the contest could no more be de- 
scribed as a contest of opinion, than could 
the feuds of our buccaneers in the seventeenth 
century, when parting company, or fighting 
for opposite principles of dividing the general 
booty." And Bancroft sums up the just con- 
clusion, which reaches unto the day of the 
preparation : "From the fullness of his own 
mind, without consulting one single book, 
Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of 
Independence." 

Nor should we forget here to utter a word 
of memorial salutation connected with other 
names upon the roll of history, as they are 
titled unto us. Edmund Burke, John Fox, 
"Lord Chatham," and the Duke of Rich- 
mond. And Colonel Barre ; who named our 
troops that gathered about the city of Boston, 
" Sons of Liberty ;" a name which they were 
proud to receive, adopt, and perpetuate. 

What a picture that must have been in the 
British Parliament of 77, when Chatham was 
borne in on a litter, and supported by his at- 
tendants, was able in a voice that commanded 
the hearing of all present, to deliver this grand 
protest: "You may swell every expense, 



THEN AND NOW. 



accumulate every assistance you can buy or 
borrow ; traffic and barter with every pitiful 
little German prince that sells and sends his 
subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince ; 
your efforts are forever vain and impotent ; 
doubly so from this mercenary aid on which 
you rely, for it irritates to an incredible re- 
sentment. If I were an American as I am 
an Englishman, while a foreign troop was 
landed in my country, I never would lay 
down my arms; so help me God, never, 
never, never." 

We celebrate, this day, the grandest political 
revolution that the history of this globe re- 
cords. We turn our eyes to the past and see 
thirteen Colonies or States, embracing not 
over 830,000 square miles, with a population 
not exceeding 3,200,000 people, we lift our 
eyes to-day to behold a Republic extending 
from ocean to ocean, with a measuring belt 
of 3,000 miles, with an area of 3,559,000 
square miles, and with thirty eight States 
represented upon our flag, and a total popu- 
lation of more than 43,000,000 of people. 

Consider the relative strength of the con- 
testing parties, and there is food for inexpres- 
sible and overwhelming astonishment at the 
courage and persistence of the struggle. I 
believe that very few of our people keep in 
memory the tremendous efforts made to sub- 
due the Colonists. Great Britain sent to 
America over 140,000 men, equipped in the 
best manner then known to civilized warfare. 
And during the struggle there was no artifice 
left untried for the purpose of subjugation. 
There was no stimulant to Indian cruelty or 
avarice, no bribe of title or gold for venal 
officers or men of influence — money offered in 
places " where it would do the most good " — 
that was omitted from the working and 
thoroughly executed plan of the British 
Government. Of the 200,000 men that are 
credited with having been raised in this 
country in behalf of the cause of the Colonies, 
not more than 55,000 were ever on the field 
at any one time, and not more than 30,000 
Were at any one time reported in good fight- 
ing condition. " Hard, hard indeed was the 
contest for freedom, and the struggle for in- 
dependence.' ' Every man and every woman 
and every child of the age of puberty, whose 
sympathies were enlisted in the struggle, felt 
the personal strain of interest and of peril 
during the last years of the contest. 

What a vista of warfare ; conducted on 
the one side with so much lordly ease and 
pomp, maintained on the other with so much 
sacrifice and devotion. " The past at least is 
secure." What a vista of warfare ! Lexing- 
ton and Concord, Ticonderoga, Bunker Hill, 
Quebec, Sullivan's Island, Long Island, 
Lake Champlain, White Plains, Port Wash- 
ington, Trenton, Princetown, Bennington, 
Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, Ports 
Mercer and Mifflin, Monmouth, Quaker Hill, 
Stony Point, Savannah, Charlestown Siege, 
Camden, King's Mountain, Cowpens, Gilford 
Courthouse, Hopkins' Hill, Utaw Springs; 
what a catalogue, what a panorama of deadly 
struggles, with alternate victories and defeat, 
until Washington united with the French 
forces before Lord Cornwallis ; until the green 
cockade of Hamilton and the white plume of 
Chevalier de Lameth were tossed in triumph 
over the fortifications of Yorktown. 

Measure the cost and the resolution ; meas- 
ure the foemen and the circumstances ; meas- 
ure the suffering and the hope : what an epoch 
in history. O blessed fathers ! Theories of 
republicanism written in their blood, and 



institutions of freedom built up with their 
bones ! Not for their own aggrandizement, 
not in the mere spirit of revenge for trifling 
or grievous wrongs ; not for auything else or 
less than a holy desire for liberty, founded on 
a wonderful faith in the capacity of man- 
kind for self-government. 

My friends : we boast of a widespread 
education in our land, by our schools of 
popular resort. We point with pardonable 
pride to the houses erected and devoted to 
the instruction of the people in all the funda- 
mental and many of the higher branches of 
learning. And how many sons and daugh- 
ters of this generation have been taught or 
prompted by this boasting — if not by direct 
suggestions from the conversation of parents 
and teachers — to look with pitying consider- 
ation upon the alleged or presumed compara- 
tively illiterate condition of the men of this 
country in the Revolutionary times. Not 
only the dandy descendants of Revolutionary 
sires, who lounge in cities which have been 
built where our fathers found a wilderness, 
sprinkling rose-water in the streets, and in 
the theaters and concert halls ; — not only do 
these indulge in this kind of depreciation, 
but men and women in communities and in 
walks of life where we should naturally 
expect a more intelligent recognition of 
historical fact, and some readiness in just 
vindication, are also guilty of the same mis- 
apprehension and slanderous speech. 

Stop to think of it for a moment ! What 
a profound sense of right, combined with the 
enthusiastic love of liberty ; what ability for 
original reasoning concerning systems of na- 
tional rule, as well as physical and moral 
courage to carry out their designs, there must 
have been among nearly all the people of the 
land, — characteristic of the inhabitants there- 
of! What was the fact ? Proportionate to the 
number of inhabitants, there was in those days 
a far greater average of thoroughly educated 
men in the sea-coast towns and border villages 
of the Atlantic Coast, than will be found in 
places so situated to-day. In some degree il- 
lustrative of this fact, is the standard for sen- 
ior scholarship which is on record in the prin- 
cipal institutions of learning. In the culture 
of the classics, two or three years' added 
study would hardly bring a university gradu- 
ate of to-day up to the examination for ac- 
complishments which the Boston and New 
Haven Colleges then bestowed. 

One hundred and fifty miles west from 
the city of Boston, in the little village of 
Sheffield, in the county of Berkshire, resolu- 
tions and an address, suggestive of the Declar- 
ation, were prepared one hundred years ago ; 
which, for elegance of diction, as well as fer- 
vor of patriotism, will compete with the pe- 
riods of those documents and speeches, be- 
longing to those times, with which we are 
most familiar, and which, as specimens of 
rhetoric, we most delight to study and de- 
claim. A majority of the revolutionary fa- 
thers were accustomed to listen every Sun- 
day to preachers whose depth of thought and 
grace of culture are not exceeded in their place 
at this day ; and the congregations loved the 
meaty discourses that ran up to the 16th sub- 
division and closed with a full half hour of 
personal application. O, never was a greater 
mistake in the general belief or repute touch- 
ing the disciplined judgment and the actual 
literary accomplishments of the people. 
Though our Revolutionary fathers, by Prov- 
idential guidance, builded wiser than tbey 
knew ; yet did they understand what they 



6 



THEN AND NOW. 



were proposing and what they were doing 
fully up to that plane of secular wisdom 
which we claim for the best classes of our 
own time. 

But above all and through all was the 
splendid spirit of pure patriotism, exemplified 
in unnumbered instances throughout the land. 
Look upon the picture in one of the thousand 
households from which the soldiery of the 
Colonies went forth ! Into the backwoods — 
the far west it was then called — the youthful 
pair had gone from Boston, Salem, or 
New Bedford, Newburyport, or New York, 
or Baltimore, or Charleston or Savannah. 
Long before the Revolution, the towns and 
cities that were scattered up and down the 
thousand miles of coast, sent back to the then 
' ' far West " their enterprising children. And 
these built up the old homesteads on the ex- 
treme borders of New England, Central New 
York, New Jersey, Central Pennsylvania, 
Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Go 
and look in upon one of those homesteads. 
It is one of thousands; aye, of many thou- 
sands. You know the commodious character 
of the rude homestead structures of those 
days. The great common room is the one in 
which we will find our people. There is the 
aged sire. Twenty-five years ago — with his 
loving spouse, who now sits opposite to him 
before the wide hearth — twenty- live years 
ago he came to this "settlement," as it is now 
called, and constructed the log cabin which 
for a score of years stood upou the same spot 
that is now covered by the more pretentious 
mansion. Between him and his wife sit a 
group of ten children ; the least number that 
we can suppose for the specimen of a family 

fathering in such a place and at such a time, 
'en children are there. John, the eldest son, 
twenty -three years of age. Then Susan, then 
Abigail, then Dorothy, then Elizabeth, then 
Henry, then Ralph, then Ezekiel, then Mat- 
thew, then Samuel— Samuel the baby of 
twelve years of age. There they are— ar- 
ranged, as we will suppose, in their seats before 
the fire-place according to their respective 
ages. But there is one more in the circle 
whom we must name. He does not belong 
to this household. Not yet ; not yet. His 
name is " Reuben." He is sitting close be- 
side Dorothy. It is a cheerful group. Our 
fathers enjoyed their family life in those 
times, as they gathered about the evening tire. 
And there was still a necessity for the 
warmth of the hearthstone before retiring, in 
the short night season in this late April time. 
The company is chatting gaily about the fest- 
ivities of the winter, and the promise for pas- 
times through the coming May and leafy 
June, when a neighbor throws open the 
kitchen door, and — evidently out of breath 
with running — commences a recital of the 
story of the battles of Lexington and Con- 
cord ! He is permitted to tell the report as 
he heard it, and can give it at the first ver- 
sion : and then, after many expressions of 
wonderment, the father commences to ques- 
tion the messenger — seeking every ascertain- 
able particular. 

But ever since the first sentences have been 
uttered by the neighbor, the mother of that 
family has been sitting with her elbows on 
her knees and her wrinkled face and gray 
hair covered with her hands. Now when 
the telling is over, and the cross-examination 
has begun, she looks up ! She fixes a stead- 
fast gaze on something. What is that ? It is 
something that hangs above the mantel shelf. 
It is the old Queens-arm flint-lock musket, 



that lies athwart the deer-horn hooks on the 
chimney front. She looks at it steadily for 
several minutes while the questioning is going 
on. There is one in that company who is 
intently watching that mother now, and 
evidently awaiting her recognition. And 
when she turns her head so that the two can 
behold each other, face to face, there are 
no tears iu her eyes — no words come from her 
lips. But that other — John — the eldest boy, 
the son of her early married life, John knows 
what his mother "has been thinking about 
— comprehends it all ! And he speaks after 
a little, in a low, calm voice : " Yes, mother, 
I will take the old musket and go." And he 
walks over to her, and falls upon his knees 
beside her and receives her blessiug : " 0, 
John ! John ! You are a brave boy. Your 
country calls you, and you must go. Heaven 
bless and keep you John ! And O, if it be 
His will who has been so kind to me thus far 
through all my eartlily pilgrimage, may you 
be permitted to come back, and may I see 
your face once more before I go hence!" 

Oh Mother ! type of ten thousand mothers 
in that dreadful struggle ! Have we lauded 
the Fathers of the Revolution, and forgotten 
thee ? Forgive our imperfect memories, and 
take the tribute now. Blessed mothers of 
the days of the American Revolution ! 

But there is another competent soldier iu 
that little circle. John goes back to his 
former station and takes his chair and crosses 
to his mother's corner once more, and sits 
down beside her, with her feeble hand rest- 
ing iu his. He must needs sit beside her now , 
for the hours of companionship before de- 
parture are few. And his favorite sister, 
Elizabeth — boys will have their favorite sis- 
ters when they can choose — comes and leans 
over the two. 
Just at that moment Dorothy, — who has been 
sitting close beside her lover, to whom she 
was to have been married on the succeeding 
Sabbath day,— turns sharply about iu her seat 
and exclaims, in an unwonted tone of voice 
for her: "Reuben!" That is all she says. 
" Reuben ! " It is enough. Reuben pushes 
back his chair and rises at once. A splendid 
specimen of an American youth. Over six 
feet tall, and broad and athletic in proportion. 
He almost springs from his seat ; yet it is a 
gentle motion, as in deference to her, though 
so quick aud strong. And his gesture is not 
wanting in some sort of grace, though it is 
vehement. He brings his huge right fist 
squarely down into the palm of his left hand, 
aud exclaims : " Yes, Dorothy, I am a going 
— to-morrow." The last word comes out with 
a little hesitation, but with unabated em- 
phasis. His ready answer makes a deep im- 
pression on his betrothed; for she turns pale 
and seems on the verge of dizziness. But, in 
perfect health, and untutored iu affectations, 
she does not faint. She rises now aud excuses 
herself and Reuben, and goes with him to 
the distant window. It is a solemn scene. 
Yet it is a common scene of patriotism. 

Reuben must go ; he knows it. He must 
go. He would go of his own impulse. And 
yet he knows — if he thinks about such a 
matter at all — that if he did not go, he could 
never call that maiden, "wife." Nay, though 
he could have endowed her with a mansion, 
equal in value to one of the lath and plaster 
palaces of the monopoly lords whose dwellings 
crown the hilltops of San Fraucisco. 

It is a solemn scene! Presently the neigh- 
bor retires, and the father calls the flock to- 
gether, and opens the great Bible, and read8 



THEN AND NOAY. 



a fitting chapter. And then there is singing; 
the sweet singing of old familiar tunes. And 
then there is a parental prayer. 

The boys must go on the morrow. And 
early on the morrow they bid farewell to 
mother and father, and sister and betrothed; 
and equipped as best they may be, they depart 
for the nearest rendezvous. 

" Farewell " from mother and father and 
sisters — John — Farewell ! For though that 
aged matron shall see her boy once again, as 
she prayed she might be permitted to do, per- 
haps it would have been better for her if it 
bad been otherwise decreed. For when he 
comes back after six years' service, through 
all the campaigns, it will be the same, yet not 
the same boy that left her side. For he will 
be maimed and shattered; one leg gone, one 
eye blown out, and the festering furrow of a 
poison copper bullet across his breast. He 
shall not long out-live that mother on the old 
homestead farm. 

And the boy Reuben. O, Dorothy, " Fare- 
well ! Farewell ! " No more shall you see 
your beloved, 0! Dorothy Brown. For he 
joined Gen. Stark's force near Bennington, 
and was shot through and through a dozen 
times on the first onset of that fierce encoun- 
ter. And with a " life- long hunger " in her 
bosom — at times almost, almost, not quite — 
and less, and less so disposed as the years 
creep upon her — almost at times inclined to 
repine and reproach herself because she gave 
the word which Reuben was so quick to in- 
terpret, and take as a benediction on his own 
patriotic thought and resolution. Unwedded 
for his sake, she passes through life a heroine 
indeed for her country ; a cheer and charm 
in the households of the brothers and sisters 
of John and Reuben, who welcome her annual 
visitations. 

How coldly is it sometimes said, that the 
war of independence was inevitable. Not 
so. As the conception of a truly republican 
form of government belongs absolutely to the 
statesmen of our country, so does the impulse 
of patriotism, in its most unselfish force and 
expression, belong to the soldiers who fought 
and conquered for the principles that were 
enunciated in the Declaration. Perhaps by 
a little temporizing, a little more of submis- 
sive delay, the uprising could have been 
avoided ? With greater reason, we may say, 
that a little more delay and submissiveness 
would have resulted in such provision 
against attempts on the part of the Colonies 
to vindicate their rights that any uprising 
would have been of no avail. 

Mark the concert of action. Those far 
removed — as distance was then estimated — 
from the immediate scene of conflict, might 
have called up an infinite variety of excuses 
for non-participation in the struggle. There 
was no Government authority adequate for 
the successful announcement and enforce- 
ment of a draft ; it was not possible to con- 
centrate public opinion in the sparsely settled 
communities of the interior so as to compel or 
constrain the tardy and unwilling to answer 
the summons that was given. All is : there 
was an independent understanding of the situ- 
ation, there was an individual readiness to do 
battle and endure great hardships for the new 
born cause of republican freedom. Without 
social ostracism, without that which we would 
now call public sentiment, the almost universal 
response was made. In the outer limits of 
population the first shout for absolute indepen- 
dence was heard. There were voices crying 
in the wilderness, preparing the way for the 



acceptance and adoption by the people of the 
Declaration of Independence. 

We hear it repeated again that the tide of 
public sentiment, coming from many concur- 
rent sources, the natural growth of opinion, 
was such that the ultimate severance of this 
territory from under the British dominion 
was inevitable ; and. that the relations of 
king and subject might have been dissolved 
at a far less cost of blood and treasure, if a 
better day had been waited for in hope. On 
the contrary, with due reflection, how the 
probabilities rise for the opposite belief and 
conviction! On the contrary, the hour was 
most auspicious. On the contrary, but for 
the Revolutionary war as it stands on record, 
the probabilities are that this continent would 
long have remained the heritage of European 
kings and emperors ; embracing no larger 
separate areas than were mapped out one 
hundred years ago ; and probably subdivided 
thereafter into many sections of independent 
and hostile authority. From the necessities 
of the case, from the geography of the hemis- 
phere, the people of this continent, under 
such circumstances, would have been con- 
stantly and most relentlessly embroiled in 
the bitterest warfare. Auspicious hour ! We 
celebrate the striking of the clock of ages ; 
high noon in the political cycle of the planet; 
when the old bell in the steeple of Independ- 
ence Hall whirled on its yoke and sent forth 
the tidings that its founder moulded on it : 
"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land 
unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

But, my friends, we are not here for the 
mere recitation of events, however appropri- 
ate or necessary such recitation may be. You 
have not asked me to come upon this platform 
only that you may hear the names of our revo- 
lutionary heroes again pronounced ; although 
you may rejoice at the mention of their titles 
and the description of some of their patriotic 
deeds ; and so may be agreeably stirred anew 
to join in the special homage for this occa- 
sion on account of the recollection of their 
labor, their sacrifices and sufferings, and 
their success. And as it is not our exclusive 
business to dwell upon personal and political 
reminiscences, though they fill us with de- 
light, so it is not our highest present privi- 
lege to indulge in the bright anticipations 
which we may reasonably cultivate and com- 
mend. If it be possible — nay, it must be so 
— there is a grander, a truer, a far more sat- 
isfactory and even majestic tribute to be 
paid to the memories of our Fathers, than 
could be comprised in any form of direct eu- 
logiums. Ours is not the circumscribed work 
of narration. Ours is not the single service 
of praise. 

Could we suppose our Fathers yet living in 
conscious proximity to us, perpetual witnesses 
of our conduct as citizens, we should most 
assuredly understand that, while the words of 
honor uttered for them, and the representa- 
tions of their heroism, were pleasing in their 
ears, yet their loftier and their only adequate 
recompense must spring from our watchful- 
ness and industry, and our own complete self- 
dedication as the friends of freedom. A con- 
cise and dispassionate consideration of our 
duties, and an inquiry into our ability and 
disposition to perform those obligations which 
have come with our rights and advantages, 
is the theme for sacred individual contempla- 
tion this day. 

As I cannot pause to qualify my limited 
number of sentences so as to guard against 
suspicion of an unwarranted spirit of dicta- 



THEN AND NOW. 



tion ; as I cannot finish everyparagraph with 
a protest against any possible challenge in 
any mind on account of the absolute nature 
of my statement or suggestion, I -wish to say, 
once for all : I claim no peculiar aptitude 
for the office to which yonr kind considera- 
tion has called me here this day, and I have 
no wish to impose upon any one a view of the 
condition and prospects of affairs that is repug- 
nant to well considered and established con- 
victions. I shall speak plainly and firmly as 
I think — and so always must I speak, if I 
speak at all — and yet you will believe me 
when I say that I have entire respect for 
your opinions and beliefs touching any sub- 
ject upon which I may dwell, or to which I 
may make passing allusion. One thing I 
know, if I know my own heart — and indeed 
it is the invocation of my discourse — I can 
with you this day earnestly seek to lay aside 
all partisanship, all personal antipathy or 
likings, wherever they may exist: that we 
may commune with heartiness and judge with 
candor. 

Our characteristics as a nation have un- 
doubtedly undergone a great change and ac- 
quired a peculiar force by reason of the inter- 
mingling with other than the original stock. 
The immigration of many millions of foreign- 
ers to this country during the past hundred 
years, has made up a population, especially 
in the new States and Territories, with whom 
appeals have a different and often discordant 
sound, and representations of fact have a 
different and contrasting emphasis. Had the 
population of this country been confined 
almost entirely to the progeny of those who 
dwelt in the thirteen colonies at the date of 
independence, the census roll would scarcely 
have been one-third as large as now, and the 
development of industries must have been 
proportionately small. We have to congratu- 
late ourselves upon great accessions from the 
civilized nations of the earth. The demon- 
stration of " a land of the free and a home of 
the brave," has been in itself a mighty testi- 
mony to the wisdom of our earliest statesman- 
ship and diplomacy. The homogeneousness 
that is desirable must come with the years ; 
and not only the already admitted advantage, 
but the enhanced physical strength and 
beauty in years to come, will a thousand fold 
repay the costs of evils which are commonly 
cast to the account of an immigration of peo- 
ple easily imposed upon by the managers of 
politics and the heartless aggrandisers of trade. 

We are enjoying the full fruits of our 
Fathers' labors. We can cite a hundred bene- 
fits against one great wrong in our National 
or State life. But are we going forward in 
the pathway which their principles and policy 
marked out ? Or where is the recognized, 
the demonstrable deviation that requires a 
resolute and untiring effort of correction? 
Are there crying wrongs of which we should 
complain, with the temper and resolution of 
reform 1 Let us see. I remember the time 
is short, and I set aside a flood of suggestions 
— coming directly to the main and overshad- 
owing issues. 

" The day of material development ! " Yes ! 
" Wonderful," is written on the doorposts of 
the factories and foundries and machine 
shops and laboratories of the land. Wonder- 
ful ! The lightning train that recently bore 
its passengers across the continent — 3,000 
miles in 80 hours — is but one of many de- 
monstrations. What is to be said of all this 
wonderful advance by inventions, and by 
their applications with money, nerve, and 



muscle ? I say : Right here our needs and 
our dangers and our duties rise to their 
highest mountains of observation and demand. 

God Almighty put it into the minds of many 
men of many lands, to discover two principles 
of motive power — Steam and Electricity. 
The very methods by which they were dis- 
covered and first applied, and the fact that 
several inventors of apparently almost equal 
merit in widely separated countries were 
simultaneously recorded and renowned, is a 
Coincidence of Providence, establishing the 
intention of universal use and perfect popular 
enjoyment. The great endowment of the 
Century was given for the children of the 
Century, and for all the children of every 
land thereafter. So reads the Biography of 
the Arts. Now what is the fact ? Oat of 
these very inventions spring and grow the 
present wants and the awful present perils of 
the Republic ! I shall not weary you with an 
old, old story. I shall state the fact. 

We have a work of Vigilance, for we have a 
war for emancipation. None are so blind as 
not in some degree to recognize the fact of 
oppression within our borders ; few are so 
situated as not to feel the weight of tyranny 
thus imposed. The fact is that we are cursed 
with monopolies which originally derived 
their power from the unwittiug consent and 
aid of the burdened and oppressed — by con- 
tributions obtained under false pretenses, or 
extorted in devious ways of legislation. Our 
need is redemption from the thraldom of 
monopolists ; and this need we can more 
particularly specify in two instances, with 
distinct and indisputable arraignments. 

Such an endowment as was never given to 
any enterprise of a similar nature, has been 
granted by our General and State Govern- 
ments to the greatest railroad monopoly of 
the land. Proportionately great has been 
the gift of the people to that other, and in 
some respects more outrageous extortioner, 
the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
We cannot disguise the fact that our National 
Legislature and our State Assembly are de- 
ceived and debauched by the agents of these 
great monopolists, in combination with the 
different local monopolies which are to be 
found in any particular commonwealth at any 
particular time, or knocking at the door of 
any particular session of Congress. 

I have been an eye-witness to so much of 
these corrupting and bamboozling processes 
from these sources, that I am sure no one can 
be more competent to relate the fact. And it 
is a momentous fact which requires a promi- 
nent and serious consideration at this day. 

What is the want, founded upon the needs 
which this condition of affairs indicates ? 
Faithful representation. The popular judg- 
ment — the prevailing popular judgment — 
is correct. The need is for faithful repre- 
sentation. Born of the law, enabled to 
construct their great works with the money 
of the people, these monopolists are, by the 
terms of the statute, bound to answer faith- 
ful representatives. Yet, year after year 
goes by, pledge after pledge is made, and the 
tyrants within our borders, the Emperors 
of the empire within an empire, laugh at 
our discomfiture, and mock when, after many 
failures, we again seek legislative emancipa- 
tion. 

It is not a quarrel of dollars and cents be- 
tween the mass of the people and a few in- 
corporations. It is a question of national 
integrity — it is a question concerning liberty 
for the private enterprise. The finances 



THEN AND NOW. 



of the country, the prosperity of commu- 
nities, are impaired and jeopardized alto- 
gether. Every species of business is either 
brought directly under tribute to these 
monopolies, or threatened with ultimate levy. 

Our duty as good citizens and as patriots 
has always seemed to me to be clear and 
simple.' For honest representation you must 
have unmistakable obligations spread before 
the people at the beginning of every political 
canvass. Not only for the proper and avowed 
purpose of holding representatives to their 
general agreement, but for their moral and 
explicit support in discharging the functions 
of their office. 

We speak not now as partisans, but we 
consult as patriots. Some representatives 
are deceived ; a few are bought. Some repre- 
sentatives are seduced by the blandishments 
of skillful lobbyists ; a few put themselves up 
at auction for the services which they can 
render. The most who fail of honorable 
record are deceived or intimidated. What is 
required is nothing less than a clear declara- 
tion of rights, and the popular prescribing of 
a corresponding statute for enactment. 

Let the platform read : " Every man nomi- 
nated by this Convention ie pledged to intro- 
duce, vote for, and support, without hesitation, 
equivocation or mental reservation the follow- 
ing bill, to-wit : Be it enacted, etc. Section 
1. No railroad company in this State, built 
wholly or in part by subsidies from this 
State, or from counties or cities in the State, 
shall charge over 4 cents per mile for each 
passenger carried thereon. Section 2. Any 
ticket vendor, or conductor, or other officer of 
any railroad company described in Sec. 1, 
who shall be guilty of charging or collecting 
any money in excess of 4 cents per mile for 
each and every passenger traveling on such 
road, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 
$500, or imprisonment in the County Jail 
not exceeding six months for each and every 
such offense of which he may be found 
guilty." And similar provisions with refer- 
ence to railroad freights would meet with the 
same burden. A like pledge exacted from 
candidates for Congress would secure for the 
people a just tariff upon the roads which have 
their charter rights and their subsidies from 
the National Government. 

I do not. undertake to say that this is the 
exact form that should be adopted in all cases, 
but it furnishes a pattern that is deserving of 
close imitation. 

And so should the pledges read in all large 
communities for legislation against every spe- 
cies of local monopoly which deals with the 
necessities of life, or with the prerogatives 
and privileges of common carriers. 

Mark you, it is not proposed that the Na- 
tion or State or municipality should assume a 
paternal government. Quite to the contrary. 
I know this is the plea of the great monopo- 
lists : That the logical deduction or conclu- 
sion from the popular call for emancipating 
legislation of this character will result in inter- 
ference in private enterprise and legitimate 
business competition. The plea is more than 
untrue, coming from such a source. The fact 
is that these monopolists — as must be reiter- 
ated — interfere directly and absolutely with 
private enterprise in such a nanner as to de- 
stroy the legitimate competition of trade. 

Our government has been requested to en- 
dow a great undertaking on a deliberately 
written obligation to compensate for such as- 
sistance by reasonable rates for the carrying 



of persons and property and communications. 
Not only has this obligation been set aside, 
but the private business of whole communi- 
ties is practically usurped by the magnates of 
these corporations. And year by year usurp- 
ation and absorption increase. I state the 
fact. Every consideration of law and equity, 
every sense of justice and right, every im- 
pulse of patriotism, srjrings directly in the 
form of reason and emotion on behalf of this 
long- sought emancipation. Surely the day 
ought to be expected when the first and last 
thought of enterprising business men in the 
great centers of trade should not be one of 
obsequious consideration for the favor of in- 
corporators who have been munificently en- 
dowed by Nation, State, and city. Surely the 
people of this and adjacent communities 
ought not to despair from the idea of a reason- 
able combination of capital and enterprise 
required for the construction of a railroad 
over the natural central mountain route — 
across the valleys of Plumas aud Sierra. Yet 
we must know that efforts heretofore inaugu- 
rated and directed towards that work of 
construction have been defeated by the influ- 
ence which the railroad monopoly in Califor- 
nia has brought to bear. 

The other great monopoly of the land, 
threatening directly and indirectly the liber- 
ties of the people, is known by the name of 
the Western Union Telegraph Company. 
Commencing with a capital of a few thous- 
and dollars, it has crept up to the ownership 
of nearly all the " wires" in the Union ; and 
by purchase and construction now owns 
$15,000,000 worth of property of this descrip- 
tion ; while its stock has been watered $100,- 
000,000 for the benefit of its managers and 
manipulators. To-day it practically has the 
monopoly in the transmission of the telegraphic 
correspondence throughout the land. To-day 
it is the great corrupter of the Congress of 
the United States. Before its lobbyists made 
their appearance at Washington, such a thing 
as bribery was comparatively unknown in 
the halls of the National Legislature. It was 
an exceptional aud notorious case of perfidy, 
when the legislator at Washington forfeited 
his direct or implied promise to his constitu- 
ents. But the railroad and telegraph monop- 
olies have changed all that. The railroad has 
scores of paid lobbyists at the National Cap- 
itol ; strikers of every sort, lawyers of every 
grade, land agents and general jobbers of 
every title. The telegraph has not so many 
persons ostensibly and exclusively engaged in 
the business of corrupting the National Legis- 
lature. But its forces are better disciplined, 
and its list of employees on half pay for 
emergencies fully equals the catalogue of its 
associate in this business. The telegraph mo- 
nopoly not only buys Congressmen with gold, 
but it has the reputation of many Represent- 
atives (if not all) in its grasp, and bullies or 
seduces those who are not to be bought into 
silence or opposition with respect to all feas- 
able measures for a postal telegraph. 

Is the exemplification of the matter prac- 
tical in a few brief sentences ? Judged by 
the terms of the Eastern roads, constructed 
almost entirely by private enterprise and pri- 
vate capital, you should be able to travel from 
San Francisco to New York, with first class 
accommodations, for $60. You are required 
to pay $130. Gauged by the actual cost of 
construction — without considering the fact 
that the original line from Omaha to San 
Francisco was paid for by the Government, 
State and City subsidies— you ought not to be 



10 



THEN AND NOW. 



taxed more than fifty cents at the outside, for 
a twenty-word message from Quincy to the 
Atlantic Coast. With the postal telegraph in 
operation, you would not be required to pay 
more than twenty-five cents for a twenty- 
word message hence to the Eastern States ; 
while for messages accumulating for dispatch 
in the night season, one-half cent a word 
would be the extreme tax upon your corre- 
spondence. 

Now, the Pacific railroads were endowed, 
practically, with $150,000,000. The original 
telegraph line from San Francisco to Omaha 
was more than paid for by subsidies. Cyrus 
W. Field auuounced that its original cost was 
more than covered by the net receipts during 
the first year after its completion. 

The railroad and telegraph monopolies, 
through their agents at Washington, have 
boasted of their ability to pay $10,000,000 to 
promote and maintain their "interests" at 
the Capitol — for the services, during one ses- 
sion, of lobbyists and newspaper writers, and 
for the extra salary of Senators and Congress- 
men. How much of this sum, or how much 
greater sum, theydoexpend, may remain some- 
thing of a mystery to the world in general. 
We do know that Congressmen and Senators 
go to Washington poor and retire after a 
brief term of service with an abundance of 
money or a vast property in land. 

A free press is one of the safeguards of 
republican institutions. Have we a free 
press in the United States ? We can hardly 
boast of anything of the kind, except in the 
towns and villages of the land. Such a pub- 
lication as deserves to be called a free daily 
journal is an exception to the rule in the 
large cities of this Union. Startling as the 
assertion may be to some, it is the simple 
truth. By the combination of the Western 
Union Telegraph Co. and the Associated 
Press, and the railroad monopolies, almost 
every daily paper in all our large cities is 
brought under the dominion of the monopolies 
and extortionists. Some journals are more 
and some less stringently held to their service. 
Some owe more allegiance to one monopoly 
than another. All are permitted to make a 
periodical diversion on the side of the people, 
that they may the more readily and efficiently 
defend and promote the interests of their 
masters in times of pressing danger! And 
all these newspapers are always professing 
great concern iu behalf of the people's rights. 
This is a plain, unvarnished recital of con- 
temporaneous history. The metropolitan 
press, as a rule, is a disgrace to our country, 
and a standing menance to our freedom. 
"The exceptions to the rule" are so notable 
as to require no enumeration before any in- 
telligent promiscuous audience. You can 
name on your fingers the honest daily city 
journals of national reputation. Not only is 
the metropolitan press under the dominion of 
the monopolies referred to, but characteristi- 
cally ready for any job of public plunder that 
may be planned and perpetrated against the 
people. 

During the revolutionary war there was no 
daily journal printed in the Colonies. There 
were scores of weekly newspapers, most of 
which were patriotic ; and the best among 
them was published by a woman in the city 
of Boston. It is safe to say that if, propor- 
tionate to the number of inhabitants, there 
had been a daily press in this country 100 
years ago, with the same ratio of such venal 
sheets as afflict us to-day, Washington and 
his associates would have been 60 misrepre- 



sented and maligned, and the large commu- 
nities would have been so deceived, that suc- 
cess for our arms would have been impossi- 
ble. 

Our metropolitan newspapers do not lack 
for ability. Their local columns often display 
admirable judgment and industry. There are 
employed in writing for them many excellent 
gentlemen and thorough scholars. But as a 
rule their management is entirely on a mer- 
cenary basis. They are up for sale. And 
when the owners cannot sell their columns 
in favor of a monopoly or a job, they make 
a dress parade of their virtue by attacking 
that particular monopoly or job; saying again 
for the thousandth time, " O, people, see how 
we love you and defend your interests!" 
There is no phrase or sentence of encomium 
which can attach to the business of journal- 
ism which they are not handy in placing to 
their own unblemished credit ! 

These papers would make you believe that 
you owe to them that sentiment of hostility 
to some monopolies which has sometimes 
arisen to burning force in this State. They 
did not excite that sentimeut ; they did not 
promote that sentiment. It originated and 
spread and became apparent and took an or- 
ganized force in spite of them. Then it was 
their function, as the paid creatures of the 
monopolies, to proclaim themselves the au- 
thors of that sentiment, the originators of the 
movement that belonged to it. They pro- 
posed to champion the rights of the people 
and lead the movement to legislative success. 
But when the hour came for focalizing work 
in the legislation, when proceedings were 
narrowed down bo as to mean business in 
emancipation, then was doubt and confusion 
cast upon this or that particular measure; 
then the work of general demoralization was 
the service of the Metropolitan Press. Or if 
the people's organizations, having had expe- 
rience in this kind of treachery, refused 
longer obeisance to these organs of incorpo- 
rators and corrupters — put no more trust iu 
such leadership — then the Metropolitan Press, 
with great flourish, withdrew altogether from 
the battle ; declared that it was a hopeless 
war; or remained silent as to the issues, and 
indulged in frequent and extended praise of 
the greatest enemies of the public, whom but 
yesterday it pretended to dislike. I speak of 
what I have seen again and again illustrated 
in California aud Nevada, and in the cities 
and Legislatures of those States. Repeatedly 
have I seen such newspaper demoralization 
and treachery illustrated at the National 
Capitol and in the city of Sacramento. 

Our unknown relatives and progenitors of 
the middle ages were Priest-ridden. The 
people of the United States of America are 
Press ridden. The necessity for the hour is 
for the people to do their own thinking and 
manage their own political organizations, 
Emancipation from monopolies means, first, 
emancipation from the dictation of the Met- 
ropolitan Daily Press. Which leads me in 
conclusion of this portion of my address to 
declare, that the present hope of the country 
is in the people of the country places and in 
the press of the towns and villages of the 
nation. 

I am far from being one of those who 
believe that the admitted dangers to the Re- 
public are such as make the balance of 
reasonable expectation against the promise of 
perpetuity for our institutions; though many 
men, eminent for cool judgment and under- 
standing, have not hesitated to express such an 



THEN AND NOW. 



11 



opinion. I do not think that these monopolies 
can go much further in the work of extortion 
and corruption. Because I believe in the 
people of the country ; I believe in an arous- 
ed and thoroughly concentrated public senti- 
ment. On this we must depend. 

Our principal cities contain a large pro- 
portion of worthy men, but these cities are 
practically under the control of rings. Some- 
times most under the management of the 
worst classes in the community, when ac- 
cording to the outside repute, given through 
the press, they have been freed from such 
wretched domination. The temper and dis- 
position of the present generation of people 
in the country places, enlightened and excited 
for proper action, and the educated patriotism 
of the children who are to come after us, are 
the main reliances for substantial and en- 
during reform in this country. Our metro- 
politan press is the chief lever in so shaping 
matters political in our cities that we can 
hope for little or nothing of reform legislation 
by the city representatives. Reform we 
must undoubtedly achieve, if the Republic is 
to stand. 

As much as any one, I regret and deplore the 
fact that rich thieves can buy seats in Congress 
and the Legislatures, from many districts in 
the land. But the danger thus threatened and 
embodied is apparently met by a rising 
popular disgust at the exhibition which these 
creatures make when they enter the halls of 
legislation, and commence to recite the speech- 
es written for them by their accomplished 
private secretaries. I protest against the ar- 
rogance and impositions and positive tyranny 
of the monopolists, — with the admission that 
the day of our downfall is not far distant if 
their rule is not checked and overthrown ; 
but I think I see their doom in the white 
heat of a just public sentiment — a public senti- 
ment organized as our Fathers combined for it 
in the days of the Revolution. The property, 
the " vested rights '' of these monopolies, will 
not be theirs many years longer, at all events, 
if they manage or are permitted to control 
without qualification as they have done for 
many jears past. For another revolution is 
at hand ! But I look for a practical and peace- 
ful solution of our difficulties ; and I give my 
illustration of plans and methods and results. 

We are exorbitantly taxed by the railroad 
monopolists. Our private business enterprises 
are impaired, or destroyed, or rendered miser- 
ably subordinate to the monopolies. Now, 
it is no answer to all this to say, that the 
main enterprise has been a benefit to the 
State and Nation. If there is any good in 
such enterprises, the people are entitled to a 
reasonable measure of benefit. The inven- 
tions were given for all the people. More 
than this; with respect to the monopolies 
most complained of we restate the fact, that 
their works were built with the people's 
money. A large revenue, an immense per- 
centage on the capital that is legitimately 
represented — tho' that capital come from the 
State and Nation — would not be begrudged 
to those who control the great railroads and 
telegraph lines of the country. But the 
extortions are tremendous and unendurable ; 
and tbey are kept up by corruptly defeating 
all honest legislation touching their revenues 
and their tariff. Now, honest legislation 
must be had. It must be had by the people 
speaking directly through explicitly pledged 
representatives, in the manner which has 
already been indicated. We must have a 
faithful representation of the popular will. 



But suppose a proper public sentiment, 
directed in a literal business channel, was 
cultivated among the people ? Take the out- 
side of the expense of a trunk railroad from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific on a central route. 
Honestly constructed, it should not cost more 
than one hundred millions of dollars. But 
give the vast margin of fifty millions— one 
hundred and fifty millions of dollars. Ought 
there not to be ten thousand men, of all the 
merchants at home and abroad, who are 
deeply interested in trade across the conti- 
nent, who could well afford to actually give 
ten thousand dollars each towards the con- 
struction of such a road, — on promise of a 
reasouable tariff of freights and fares ? 
This would aggregate one hundred millions 
of dollars. Are there not five thousand 
merchants and private citizens who would 
invest five thousand dollars each in the stock 
of such an enterprise, after such a contribu- 
tion, with the allied impulse of hostility to 
the monopoly and a sentiment of patriotism ? 
Suppose that this number of persons are 
thoroughly informed in the premises, and 
fully aware of the necessity for breaking up 
the corruption which springs from the 
monopoly that is thus to be defeated and 
overthrown. Is it an incredible thing ? Are 
we asking or proposing a co-operation and 
combination that is simply ridiculous ? Is it 
so iu this Centennial Tear ? This latter in- 
vestment would add twenty-five millions to 
the enterprise. Then, are there not twenty 
thousand persons who would invest two 
thousand dollars each ? Aggregating forty 
millions of dollars. In all one hundred and 
sixty-five millions — enough to construct a 
railroad and a ten- wire telegraph line across 
the continent ! The very figures, when 
spread before the eye, indicate, and it seems 
to me demonstrate, the entire reasonableness 
of the expectation — provided there is any 
truth iu our assuming a deep seated and wide- 
spread spirit of patriotism in the Republic. 

Public spirit is patriotism, when applied to 
the business enterprises of a great country. 
I wish I had the opportunity to emphasize 
this statement with mauy illustrations that 
press in upon me. Public spirit is patriotism, 
when citizens are well informed as to their 
duties, and conscientiously bound to their 
fulfillment. And the public spirit should, in 
these early days of the new century, build 
your rival railways by southern passes, and 
over your own natural and incomparable cen- 
tral route. 

But you may accept a proposition more 
closely drawn to the capacity of the masees 
of the people. From one hundred thousand 
citizens expect for such an enterprise an in- 
vestment — not a gift — of one thousand dol- 
lars each. There is one hundred millions. 
From one hundred thousand more expect a 
contribution of five hundred dollars each. 
This would suffice for the construction of a ri- 
val central transcontinental railroad. And 
then there are two hundred thousand persous 
directly interested in the success of the pro- 
ject ; the persons best qualified to contribute 
to the success of the enterprise — to confer 
and build up an enduring patronage on the 
new road and under the new and reasonable 
regulations. 

Or, once more, we will suppose — you may 
say imagine — that half a million of people 
contribute for such a purpose one hundred 
dollars. This is fifty millions. After such a 
subscription was made, ten thousand men of 
all classes of capitalists would gladly hasten 



12 



THEN AND NOW. 



to the investment of ten thousand dollars 
each ; and then we should have the rival 
road and an everlasting competition. 

Is this a Utopian scheme ? Will any one 
say this is a "South sea bubble " 1 The value 
of this investment, the substantial excellence 
of the work, cannot be successfully chal- 
lenged. But you cannot laugh at any such 
proposition so heartily as the British minis- 
try, * one hundred years ago, shouted in 
derision at the protest of the Colonies against 
taxation, and the threats of the Colonists 
for war and independence. 

Fellow citizens, what are we doing ? 
Boasting of our freedom ? Boasting of our 
lineage 1 Boasting of the courage of the 
past! Boasting of the power to maintain 
ourselves against the combined governments 
of Europe in a foreign war ! And yet so 
miserably poor within ourselves ; so utterly 
devoid of the fraternal spirit of co-operation 
as against the tyrants that are at our own 
threshold, that we must join the monopoly's 
press and the " silver-tongued " orators who 
are pensioned by the rich thieves and fools in 
Congress— who are hired for the work of 
mocking— and sneer and scoff at every such 
plan as this for emancipation ! 

0, for the spirit of co-operation and patriot- 
ism that exists in the new-born Republic of 
France ! For the like of it, as there recently 
exhibited in the payment of the national 
debt, would bring to pass all these desirable 
consummations. 

Nor is this a mere matter of faith, or a kind 
imputing of moral disposition in secular enter- 
prise. Seventy-five millions of money are 
daily thrown over from one hand to another 
in the stock transactions of the country ; and 
sometimes in San Francisco this amount is 
passed from hand to hand, in its represented 
forms, within the two sessions of the Boards 
that congregate within the halls of hazard. 
The audacity for such a popular scheme, the 
courage for such an investment, is not lacking. 
And there is often a disclosed ambition among 
men who control immense amounts of capital 
at the centers of trade, to leave some record 
worthy of the name of humanity. Even 
among the worst, even those who force young 
men into corners of tribulation,— and take 
hundreds of thousands of dollars from the 
fruits of the forgeries to which their victims 
have by them been compelled, — investments 
have been made in theological seminaries with 
some hope of a popular human, if not a 
Divine forgiveness. And this is confessedly 
going down to the lowest plane of expecta- 
tion. But let it be made known in various 
ways that the people would recognize the 
enterprise indicated as worthy of execution 
by men claiming the highest and purest of 
patriotic motives— let attention be so directed 
and emphasized — and the money wonld 
come ! 

And this is not speaking of utter impossi- 
bilities; for in a thousand and one small com- 
munities, at a proportionate cost and sacrifice, 
similar results have been attained in this 
Republic, and in all the other civilized nations 
of the earth. 

We must cultivate this public sentiment, un- 
to a practically emancipating application and 
conclusion. We must not deny the possibility 
of its existence, and its practicable workings. 
We must stimulate its exercise by mapping 
out ways for its development and its display. 
We must not be shamed from giving utter- 
ance to such expectations, by the derisive 
laugh of the monopolists, who do accompany 



their editors and orators when they say : 
" You would be very free with other people's 
money ! " 

Think of it! Think of it! What three 
millions of people could do one hundred years 
ago ! Tossing their all into the cause of free- 
dom. Pledging their fortunes and their lives, 
unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly, for the free- 
dom of the Colonies and the good of the hu- 
man race. And here we are speaking for 
forty-three millions of people on this conti- 
nent; and it is almost hazardous to his repu- 
tation for common sense for a man in a 
mountain town in California to suggest the 
bare possibility that we have a milliou of 
adults in this generation of the great Re- 
public, who would be willing to contribute 
one hundred dollars each to deliver this land 
from the chains of a grinding and debauch- 
ing tyranny ! Think of it ! Think of it — 
before you cast these suggestions into the 
lire of your contempt. 

Co-operation in business is not merely a 
commercial but a patriotic need of the times. 
That fraternizing interest which is denom- 
inated by this comprehensive term must be a 
cardinal feature in the progressive life of the 
people of this Republic during the century 
that is to come. Not that communities shall 
or should be brought to the dead level of priv- 
ilege or enjoyment; not that competition 
shall not be allowed full and encouraged 
opportunity and scope ; but that with respect 
to the fundamental wants and requirements of 
the people, the balance of privilege for all 
shall be recovered and kept with a steady 
and unfaltering hand. 

These monopolies do more than directly op- 
press and interfere wrongfully with business 
enterprises of the citizens. They check the 
advances of mankind in the application and 
enjoyment of inventions. It is so in some 
degree with respect to railroading ; it is pre- 
eminently so with respect to telegraphs. To- 
day there stand on record inventions which 
multiply the working capacity of the tele- 
graph more than a hundred fold. But they 
do not come into practical and popular use 
because the telegraph monopoly in this coun- 
try will not have the prices for transmission 
cheapened, nor their pretended reasons for 
maintaining their exorbitant tariffs still 
further impaired and exposed. More than 
this: thousands and thousands of persons are 
kept out of employment by the managers of 
this legacy of discovery and invention. 
Where a railroad and telegraph monopoly of 
the country at this day employ one person, 
proper competition and a proper application 
of inventions and discoveries by way of im- 
provement — with the proportionate reduction 
of terms — would result in creating a demand 
for twenty persons. With a postal telegraph 
all the wonderful improvements which have 
been made in the methods of transmitting mes- 
sages by electricity during the past ten years 
would be applied, andwithin the decade all the 
written communications of the people would 
be transmitted over the telegraph wires. None 
qualified to speak with reference to this subject 
could maintain a negative to this assertion be- 
fore au intelligent audience. But the people 
are kept in ignorance of these facts ; these in- 
ventions are smothered ; Congress is bam- 
boozled and bribed in order that the telegraph 
monopoly may continue to flourish and extort. 
How long is this to be in a free country, or in 
a country worthy to be called free ? In this 
nineteenth century of Christian civilization, 
and this second century of the life of the 



THEN AND NOW. 



13 



American Republic t — How long ? How 
long are we to be under the dominion of 
these monopolists ? The people and the 
press of the country places of the land are 
alone to be relied upon for a cheering answer. 
The margin for individual enterprise and 
splendid business competition should grow 
wider with each important invention calcu- 
lated to lessen the requirements for manual 
drudgery, and to diversify the industries of 
life. The grasping of selfish monopolies must 
be met by the fraternizing of the people in 
their several departments of labor ; or the 
second auspicious hour for emancipation will 
have passed forever from our reckoning ! It 
is a part of true patriotism to meditate upon 
these things. 

The " pursuit of happiness " is declared 
to be an inalienable right. To "insure do- 
mestic tranquillity " is proclaimed a purpose 
of the Union. Yet we know that there is an 
apprehension among many good people (es- 
pecially among those who claim entire ortho- 
doxy for their creed and purpose) to the 
eifect that one of our greatest dangers as a 
people consists in our present or future exces- 
sive characteristic happiness and content. In 
this there must be a confusion of ideas ; a 
substituting of the thought of luxury and 
enervating ease, for a just conception of a 
condition of plenty and peace. These good 
people delight to review their early history, 
and their children are glad to hear the story — 
how they struggled, and toiled, and overcome, 
amid many and great privations. They hold 
those parental plans injudicious which favor 
for their children the amelioration or avoid- 
ance of hardships such as attended their own 
boyhood struggle for a livelihood and com- 
petence. And going beyond this, in the gen- 
eral thought concerning'the land and the peo- 
ple : — when they see so much wrong-doing in 
our Republic, they prophesy an immediate 
and literal war of redemption, or an ordeal 
of terrible distress. Between these good peo- 
ple's opinions, and the rose-colored view of 
the optimist, the just picture and judgment 
may be found in a balance. Discipline is a 
thing for the generations that are soon to 
come upon the active stage of life in this 
Republic, but a tax of penury and want is 
unnecessary. And for the battling that is 
disciplinary in its character and redeeming 
in its results, the fields are ready and to the 
hand for every patriot. 

Talk not to me of heroism or martyrdom 
as confined alone to the bloody field of car- 
nage. The courage, patience, and persist- 
ence that compose the fine quality of heroism 
are needed now in our country in the blessed 
days of peace. Our sons and daughters are and 
will be required, in the name and cause of pat- 
riotism, to challenge foes and confront unnum- 
bered enemies to the cause of political right 
and liberty. Not in literal manual combat, nor 
yet in any misty debates about the problems 
of life which the phlegmatic philosophers put 
forth with so much unction and exclusiveness. 

The statement and the illustration of the 
demand for all the strength and vigor of 
patriotism can surely be placed in brief and 
unmistakable paragraphs. 

Your boy will find, as he enters upon the 
arena of life, that if he would be honest and 
earnest in devotion to the principles of liberty 
in this country, he must be both brave and 
resolute. The blandishments of the devil's 
own princes are on every hand. And it may 
be that martyrdom is for him ; for if it shall 
be true that he stands confirmed as an honest 



representative, he nmst not expect promo- 
tion, except he live in vigor to see the day 
when the rising strength of an intelligent 
and honorable people shall overbear all the 
cunning of the rings of monopoly. Back to 
private life, or not one step beyond the first 
promotion — such will be their orders, if he 
will not do their law. And often it is to-day 
the fact — and will be so to-morrow — that he 
who contributes most to create and promote a 
just public sentiment will reap no political 
reward. He may be, he is likely to be, the 
most unpopular man in the very communities 
where he has instigated and inoculated a 
spirit of righteous resistance, rebellion, and 
reform. And in the first dawning days of 
victory for the cause he has espoused, he 
must expect to see time-servers and hypocrites 
reap the harvest of his labor and fortitude. 

The monopolies say to the young man who 
makes his first appearance in the public 
forum : " Be circumspect, young man, and do 
not attack our ' vested rights.'" That much, 
at least, will be whispered into his ear, at 
the very outset of his mission as a public- 
spirited citizen and patriot. 

But if he should be recognized at once as 
possessing unusual ability, the agents of the 
monopolists will go further and say, " Come 
into our private rooms, young man, and we 
will point out to you the certain and only 
road of preferment. We will convince you 
forthwith that your prudent and proper 
and profitable course lies in the direc- 
tion that we aloue are competent to indi- 
cate. To begin with— as a trifling token 
of our regard for you and of our disposition to 
be your friend in all things — you shall have 
plenty of money for your comfort, your 
pleasures, and your dissipations. We are rich 
and powerful ; we say to this man Go, and 
he goeth, and to another Come, and he Com- 
eth ; we build up legislatures, we nominate 
Governors, and Congressmen, and United 
States Senators ; and no young man can be 
sure of a lasting and honorable reputation 
who has not our endorsement. And if any 
man, under a misapprehension of the strength 
of popular will, rebels against our dictates 
when, with our consent, he shall have been 
elected, we kick him out of office, and add a 
thousand humiliations to the ordinary shame 
of a remarkable and unexpected defeat. We 
can show you, if you will come into our pri- 
vate rooms, full enough to convince you of 
our ability in respect to these matters. Come 
in, and communicate with us." 

I give almost a literal copy of the language 
of appeal and admonition and promise in 
such cases made and provided. 

But the young man may say, if he shall 
have been elected to any representative 
position : " I am pledged to my constituents," 
or "I am bound by my implied and understood 
fealty to my party, to oppose strenuously 
such measures as I understand you wish pro- 
moted or sustained." 

Then the reply will come— as its equiva- 
lent is on the record in affidavits before the 
Committees of Congress at this day : " Young 
man, you don't know what what you are do- 
ing, or what you are talking about. You 
will probably never be heard of again in 
public life as a public officer if you don't 
agree to our terms and walk in paths of 
pleasantness which we open out. That is: 
never creditably known. Many young men 
in the ardor of their youthful dispositions, 
and in the natural pride of life, have pre- 
sumed to oppose us, as you think you may 



14 



THEN AND NOW. 



do to-morrow ; but they have been driven 
out of public life, or we have, at the very 
least, kept them on the grade where they 
stood when they commenced hostilities. 
Not one step have they taken in advance ; 
except they have repented and come in with 
ns and accepted our vows and obtained our 
good opinion, they have never advanced 
one step further in public position or popular 
reputation. Come in and look at our ledger 
and our catalogue." 

Perhaps the young man goes into their 
parlors, in their splendid hotel, or in their 
dwelling-houses over-looking the metropolis 
from whose verandah the King of monopo- 
lies can look down upon his city full of 
victims. And they call the roll ; and they 
recite circumstances ; and they tell in detail 
the shameful history of thousands of the 
"leading citizens " in the State of California, 
and in the States adjacent thereto — Senators, 
Representatives, Governors, etc. 

And then they repeat their solicitations : 
" Accept our liberal proposition and you are 
rich to-day, and you still remain free for all 
opinions and pursuits not antagonistic to 
our ' vested rights.' Do it, young man, do 
it, or we will open our metropolitan daily 
and weekly papers upon you ! We have 
scholars at San Francisco engaged in writ- 
ing on the Evening Wiseacre and the Morn- 
ing Owl who will pick out all the flaws in 
vour extemporaneous rhetoric and the inad- 
vertant errors in your statements, and artisti- 
cally exhibit you as an ignoramus and a 
frand — if you don't come in with us. Now 
recollect, you are just beginning life, and 
the future is before you. We can attribute a 
thousand things to you which you never 
thought of, much lees uttered, and so assert 
and reassert that the majority of the people 
who read our publications — for lack of any 
other cheap publication in which to find the 
news — will believe that you are the author 
of the most ridiculous falsehoods as well as 
the most ungrammatical periods. And in 
addition, our blackguard dailies or our 
Barbary Coast weeklies will not only adopt 
this method of sending you to Coventry, 
but will question whether your initials do not 
belong to a regular attendant in the lowest 
haunts of vice ; will lampoon you and your 
family, until your relations, one and all, like 
Job's wife, shall invite you to curse God 
and die ! 

"Young man, you had better come over and 
come with us. We will do you good. Here 
is a puree of gold to begin with. And we 
will give you a homestead to-morrow. Why 
need you work and drudge all your life long 
to attain reputation and honor? We can 
make you honorably renowned in a day. 
Why should you voluntarily plunge into battle 
for the 'dear people,' against our interests and 
our vested rights ? Vv*e will make you per- 
fectly comfortable to-day, and secure you 
witha bond for to-morrow and for all the com- 
ing days of your life. Come with us. Don't 
make an accursed fool of yourself. Come 
with us. You shall have your name heralded 
in our daily Metropolitan and our weekly 
San Francisco Presses, as "arising young 
statesman " of the State. Your bills shall be 
paid at the Palace Hotel whenever you come 
to the city. You shall have all the money you 
need for your comfort and luxury. You shall 
have all the means you require for your can- 
vasses in your locality. Your portrait shall 
be shed abroad before the world in our mam- 
moth Centennial sheet, and in our weekly 



gallery of successful saints in San Francisco. 
A great future is opening out before you, 
young man. Come in and be of U6. Don't be 
fidgetty about the rights or the reasonable de- 
sires of the people. Who are the people ? 
The people are numbskulls. Our metropolitan 
press " plays " the people for all they are 
worth at every election. Suppose a few 
hard-fisted yeomen denounce you for an ap- 
parent disregard of platforms and a violation 
of private promises. If for your interests 
and our own you run for oiBce again in that 
locality or that district, we will smooth mat- 
ters over at the election time. And, young 
man, we have a hundred ways of "going 
after" any tough customer in any particular 
community who is obstreporous against us, 
and particularly iusists upon legislative as- 
saults on our " vested rights." Come in 
with us." 

And so the pleading goes on — in this strain 
it proceeds day in and night out, until the 
final determination is made. Is there not an 
opportunity for patriotic heroism here? 
Under such circumstances, do you need a 
foreign war to develop the spirit of a soldier 
in the breasts of the boys of the rising genera- 
tion ? Do we not rather require a quiet 
moral home-discipline in truth and integrity, 
to develop the soundest faith in our institu- 
tions and the most abiding love for the liber- 
ties with which our fathers endowed us ? Do 
we not need all the accomplishments that 
earnest study can get for our children who 
are to meet the domestic tyrants of this land — 
if ever they are to be successfully encoun- 
tered — and defeat their devices and over- 
throw their policy ? 

This Republic cannot be re-cemented by 
the collision of armed soldiery, combatting 
foreign enemies, and so wedding the people 
anew in the comradeship of the camp. The 
demoralization and the ruin of character that 
inevitably follows any great war is suffici- 
ently exhibited in the government as it stands. 
The greatest champions of the race have been 
born and nurtured in times of profoundest 
peace. As the doors of the temple of the 
heathen God of War were closed when the 
Divine Hero came to fulfill His mission to man 
in the land of Palestine, so has the blessing 
of a quiet boyhood life been characteristically 
the enjoyment of nearly all the human de- 
fenders of the rights of the people. The 
cultivation of honor and courage in the col- 
leges of peace, is the discipline for the young 
who are to be invited into the banquet-nail of 
the kings of monopolies and their courtiers — 
where the king and his dukes, earls, mar- 
quises, baronets, and unnumbered flunkies, 
gather for the orgies of the night ; — and who 
are to retire unseduced by the dissipations, 
and defiant of the threats and warnings given 
in the parlors above. 

We boast a land of content ; and there is 
peace. We boast of wealth of productions ; 
and they are beyond valuation. The corn and 
the wine and the oil, and the iron and copper, 
and the precious minerals — are they not all in 
the invoice of the country ? Against your 
own mountains that gird us round about, the 
hydraulic ram with its three hundred feet 
perpendicular pressure throws a river of 
water, sending down immense streams, heavy 
with golden sands, for generous deposit in the 
long block-ribbed flumes — yet relatively 
wearing no more of substance from the im- 
mense deposits of equally valuable earth than 
the play of a pocket syringe could fret from 
one of the lower layers of the great pyramid 



THEN AND NOW. 



15 



of Egypt. And of the productions of the 
necessaries and the ordinary comforts of life: 
so vast is the burden in granary and factory 
and warehouse, that true political economy 
must to-day discover in the fact of superabund- 
ance a preponderating cause of financial dis- 
tress. 

O, land of peace and plenty ! The need is 
for the American youth to take advantage of 
the time and educational privilege, that he 
may be a warrior in the civil battles of the 
new century. 

The stimulant for discipline and comfort and 
training is unequaled. For if our institutions 
are to be preserved, rewards will come to 
those who have the moral right. We must 
soon agree as a people to take the best men 
for the most responsible offices, without res- 
pect to peculiar opinions in reference to sub- 
ordinate political issues. We must soon learn 
to make clear popular discriminations be- 
tween the real soldiers for liberty and the 
political frauds who, for themselves alone, or 
for their secret monopoly masters, mount the 
rising tide of public opinion and determ- 
ination. 

The stimulant and instruction in culture as 
patriots has been with us too much neglected 
in the years gone by. It is the study of the 
lives of our Fathers of the Revolution — 
their statesmanship and their practical policy 
— that most needs the commendation of the 
hour. What more fascinating study ! In how 
many instances exceeding the charm of the 
most bewitching novel that was ever written 
from historic annals. Precept with example, 
and the invitations and incentive of lineage, 
are combined and concentrated here. 

To-day we stand looking back upon the 
past, an.d taking our vows anew, as with 
nerves of steel : that this Republic, this 
Government, " for the people by the people," 
shall not fail from off' the earth. Yet hardly 
have we arrived at the true conception — as I 
trust and believe — of the intensity of that 
devotion which intelligent and educated 
citizens will hold towards this country when 
they shall have risen from the perusal of the 
pages of the worthy biographies of the 
Founders of the Republic. Nor is there in 
the classic writings of England a pattern 
for diction, exceeding in its length and 
breadth of excellence the periods of Jefferson, 
the paragraphs of Adams, and the essays of 
Hamilton. 

True patriotism is always a lively and 
aggressive sentiment. The Republic is full 
of saintly men who are negatively good 
citizens, but almost absolutely worthless for 
the warfare that is at hand. We need no 
foreign war ; but we do need a war-like 
spirit in its fullest measure and aggressive 
force, and its most exhilarating glow. It 
shall come as an Inspiration from the pages 
of these biographies ! 

Nor can we be sufficiently thankful that the 
year brings forth, for many reasons of profit to 
writer and publisher, a long catalogue of new 
editions, and a rapidly lengthening list of 
fresh and perfect reviews of our Fathers' 
patriotic deed and thought. And shamed be the 
boy of fitting age and decent opportunity, who 
shall not at the close of the year we open 
to-day — if not before — be able to recite a 
comprehensive record of the Revolution, and 
the names and the principal facts in the biogra- 
phies of all its influential heroes ; and the 
general principles which each of them in- 
culcated when the ultimate form of govern- 
ment came to be considered and determined. 



No work for the purely patriotic in our 
day ? No occasion for superlative commenda- 
tion of such a sentiment ? No practical appli- 
cation of it in the business affairs of govern- 
ment, in these piping hours of peace ? Look 
abroad and look at home. The old mon- 
archs of Europe hate us even more than they 
did our Fathers in the days so long gone by. 
The rich men who run the governments of 
Europe by loans, and by hiding the sinews of 
war, are in close social league with the rich 
men of this country who compose the incor- 
porators and managers of the gigantic mon- 
opolies of our Republic. All these, and all 
alike, prefer a " strong government," as they 
call it ; by which, among themselves — as they 
sit in private consultation — they agree that 
they can soonest bring to bear those influ- 
ences and accomplish those results which 
make their miserly money-calling sure and 
great. 

Or you assert or suggest that no patriotism 
is possible save in the walks of public life — 
no manifestation or exemplification appro- 
priate save in legislative action, and upon 
the forum ? We want from the coming gen- 
eration an American Charles Dickens, Wil- 
liam Makepeace Thackeray, and Douglas Jer- 
old, and George Cruikshank (who would 
not sell his pencil to any party), who shall 
spear these mushroom and shoddy aristocrats; 
who shall pursue them as they ascend to their 
throne-chambers in their hotels and clap- 
board castles of luxury, seduction, and vice, 
with a mercilessly crucifying art. We want 
men of such genius, whose patriotic judg- 
ment is clear, and who are not to be bought 
with the monopolist's gold. Nor shall such 
writers wait long for recognition ; for so 
anxious in this direction has been the instinc- 
tive hope of the American public, that many 
clowns and thinly endowed humorists who 
have really essayed something to this service, 
have been welcomed with a tumult of ap- 
plause as they shied their caps into the arena 
of letters. 

We need the drama that will "hold the 
mirror up to nature." At this day in this 
country we have nothing that fully an- 
swers such description — if, indeed, we 
have anything that makes a worthy ap- 
proach to such composition as Shakspeare so 
intended to commend. The foibles and silly 
affectations of fashionable life — where female 
offeuders against what is called good taste 
are the objects of caricature and censure 
— and in this the play is a species of cow- 
ardice — are held up to moral reprobation 
by some of our "society comedies." But 
the vices and crimes of the unscrupulous 
sons of avarice, which do most grievous- 
ly afflict the country, are not touched 
by our American stage authors ; or ouly re- 
ferred to in the most delicate Harrold-Skim- 
pole manner. The American comedies that 
are to be recognized as worthy, healthy, and 
reformatory sarcasms on the times — our times 
— are yet to be written. They cannot, at the 
first years of introduction, be played in the 
theaters of the large cities — only in the coun- 
try towns and villages. And from this must 
come another advantage of instruction and 
recreation. 

We now pay exorbitant prices for eligible 
seats in our metropolitan theaters ; where we 
may listen to one or two good actors and 
actresses, supported by ladies and gentlemen 
whose reading is forced and unnatural at all 
times, and often execrable in the extreme — 
the worst possible elocutionary patterns for 



16 



THEN AND NOW. 



our children, so far as management of voice 
and appropriateness of gesture is concerned. 
I have heard some of the old English come- 
dies performed far better in the Academy 
Hall, in a village of the State, than I have 
ever known the same or similar plays to be 
presented in any one of the many be-puffed 
city " Temples of the Drama " which I have 
visited. There is a great lacking in popular 
opportunity for this kind of most instructive 
recreation. A most foolish lacking — for there 
is an immense amount of uncultivated or 
unutilized dramatic talent in the land ; 
unexercised, if not actually repressed, on 
account of the practical monopoly in this 
kind of amusements in the city, and the 
ignorance and prejudice touching the native 
ability of our boys and girls for pleasing and 
effective stage delineations. Every town in 
the country should have a suitable edifice for 
the drama, that would mirror the times. The 
acting material is abundant ; and the bene- 
ficial results of the systematic cultivation and 
regular or frequent exhibition of the home 
talent for the home theater can be expected 
by every intelligent person who will reflect 
upon the subject and the scheme. For elo- 
cutionary clearness and precision of utterance, 
and for truth of emphasis and tenderness of 
genuine pathos, I have never heard any 
professional reader surpass in excellence the 
little lady who read your patriotic poems 
from your platform to-day. 

But the elements for romance in our history 
will soon appear to be enhanced a thousand 
fold, and so will more smoothly and naturally 
and enchantingly come forth the satires of 
the age. Passing the Centennial year, we 
are fully within the barriers of time for the 
complete exercise of the gifts and the spirit 
of imagination towards the things of the 
past. The appearance of contemporary events 
gives place to the faintly shadowed outlines 
of the distant mountain-tops and the softly 
changing hues of the landscape that lies be- 
tween. Children of fancy, pictures of love 
and devotion, may now be drawn upon a back- 
ground unsurpassed for the accessories of foli- 
age and perspective of cloud. While we may 
not boast of ancient ruins and cities, and de- 
caying castles, with which to invite the modern 
traveling philosophers of Great Britain and 
the Continent, as centers for their observation, 
and as studies and incentives for the romantic, 
yet shall our own accomplished children find 
the national history which is undisputed, and 
the heroism which it embodies and suggests 
and prophecies, more than compensation. 

And all shall combine — O, let us believe it 
will be so, as so we pray it may be — aud all 
shall combine to nurture the patriotism of the 
near future, which can tolerate no truth- 
bearing challenge that reads before the 
world : " You have the form of a Free 
Republican Government ; but a few incor- 
porated thieves have absolute dominion 
throughout your land." 



O, day of memory and hope ! Our con- 
fidence and our enthusiasm rise with every 
retrospect, and amid all shortcomings and 
defects spring forth brighter and stronger 
from every hour of solemn meditation. 

The once restless ambition for territorial 
expansion is no more. We have 6et our lines 
on the South ; aud if the green and yellow 
plats of Canada and British Columbia are 
to be added to our survey, it will not be 
because we seek an annexation. Our fields 
are measured to-day, by universal consent. 
Within the boundaries as they now stand, 
the labor and the development of the nation 
for a hundred years to come are to be ex- 
perienced and enjoyed. 

Of that which is due and desired, we have 
but faintly sketched some of the larger mat- 
ters. 

For every one of us there comes a summons 
unto a perfect citizenship. We shall not 
attain unto it ; we must strive to approximate 
it. Bound no more — no more, if ever in our 
past lives — by the iron chains of party, we 
take the issues that come for our decision 
into the closets of honest hearts, and lay our 
verdicts upon the altar of our country ; — un- 
biased by personal favoritism, unqualified by 
sinister considerations or enfeebling fear. So 
may it be. Then shall true civilization ad- 
vance ; then shall the arts of peace flourish 
best of all in the land of Washington ; 
and then shall the Creator here make mani- 
fest the uttermost beneficent possibilities of 
the human race. 

" O, Country, marvel of the earth! 

O, realm to sudden greatness grown! 

The age that gloried in thy birth- 
Shall it behold thee overthrown ? 

Shall state corruptions ruin sow ? 

Shall selfish schemers bring thee low '! 

No, land of Hope and Blessing, no! 

" And they who founded in this land 

The power that rules from sea to sea ; 

Bled they in vain, or vainly planned, 
To leave this country great and free? 

Their sleeping ashes from below 

Send up the thrilling murmur, no! 

" Our humming marts, our iron ways, 

Our wind-tossed woods on mountain crest 

The hoarse Atlantic with its bays, 

The calm, broad ocean of the West, 

And Mississippi's torrent flow, 

And loud Niagara answer, no! 

" Nor yet the hour is nigh when they 
Who deep in Eld's dim twilight sit — 

Earth's ancient kings — shall rise and say — 
' Proud country, welcome to the pit! 

So soon art thou, like us, brought low! ' 

No, sullen group of shadows, no! 

" For now behold the arm that gave 
The victory in our Fathers' day, 

Strong as of old to guard and save — 

That mighty arm that none can stay ; 

In clouds above and fields below, 

Writes in men's sight the answer, no! " 



LEOTTJEES, Etc., 

BY 

Charles A. Sumner. 

FOR SALE BY ROMAN Si CO., SAN FRANCISCO. 
Price. ------ 25 Cents. 



The Overland Tnd A Narrative Lecture < with maps). 

RniinH tho Horn A Christmas Story. Of the above, the Standard of the Cross 

nUUIIU lllC rlUI II* (Cleveland, Ohio,) says: " These pamphlets are tide-marks 

in the development of California. The one gives the story of the tedious voyage around the 
Horn ; the other is a graphic sketch of the overland trip by rail. Mr. Sumner has a bright, 
picturesque style, and puts a great deal of real life into his deccriptions. Any one who 
wishes to refresh his own memories of this travel, or to see what this trip is when taken by 
one who has his average share of animal spirits, will find these sketches both interesting 
and enjoyable. Mr Sumner has done well to print his recollections, and we shall be glad to 
see other writings from the same lively and vigorous pen." 

fliin PanoHian Woinhhnre Being items from the recollection of a trip to 

UUI OdlldUldll llCiyilUUI b. Canada. "It abounds in delightful description 

of the old towns of the New Dominion, inpleasaut and sometimes in philosophic observa- 
tions and quaint allusions, in sketches of character, in piquant contrasts, and is written in 
a style so vigorous and elegant that we are inclined to regret that the author has not given 
more attention to literat\ire. The first two or three pages remind us of Charles Lamb ; 
dwelling, as they do, upon certain old books which are dear to every reader, and in a style 
of English suggesting the simplicity, yet vigor, of the age when fine writing was not ae 
fashionable as it is nowadays." — Browne's Phonographic Monthly, N. )'. City. 

A Trill tfl PlflphP Nevada ;— being a sketch of recent frontier travel. 

Brief Notes of Fraternal visits.— IOOFAddre88 

flrlfl Fp|ln\A/chin Rhymes descriptive of the origin, objects, methods, and dedi- 

UUU rCllUVVOlll|J. " cation ceremonies of the Order. Published at the request of 
the Grand Lodge of California. 

Tniirhpc anH Hintc A Rhymed Discourse on the Times. " Delightful humor 

I UUOIICO OMU nilllO. and keen sarcasm in elegant verse. * * * The pre- 

fatory verses, descriptive of the site of the University at Berkeley, and the view there- 
from, as it is at this time, are at once exact in fidelity to natural scenes, and charming and 
elevating in suggestive power. — Oakland News 

flonroriatinn A Play in fouracts. Place, San Francisco, Cal. : Time, 1863 and 

UC\J\ CLIcUIUII. 18r ,4. " We see, by the copjTight notice, that the author is Charles 

A. Sumner, now State Senator from Storey county. * * * It is an admirably written 
comedy, showing up the mushrooms of San Francisco with an artist's hand. The ' Love 
Passages' in it are excellent. It would prove a hit, we think, on the New York city stage. 
As a memorandum of ' things ' as they are in social life in San Francisco, to-day, a historian 
of society may take notes." — Humboldt Register. 

SUMNER'S LECTURES ON 

SHORT-HAND **» REPORTING 

For Sale at Roman & Oo.'s, San Francisco, and by Andrew J. Graham, 
563 Broadway, New Ycrk City. Price, 25 cents. 



" Short Hand and Reporting " is a valuable historical record, containing much in- 
formation entirely new to me. YVM. INGRAHAM KIP, Bishop of California. 

I venture to express the hope that you may awaken a proper interest in the subject on 
the part of those who control our educational institutions. If you do, you will deserve to 
rank as a public benefactor. Your historical matter is admirably presented, and your prac- 
tical suggestions are of the highest value. A. A. SARGENT, U. S. S. 

Mr. Sumner's unusual ability as a lecturer, his great power of seizing upon note- 
worthy facts and drawing novel conclusions— his power of illuminating a subject— are well 
known to readers of his two lectures on the subjects well worn for phonographers— '• Short- 
hand and Reporting," and " Popular Use and Benefits of Phonography."— Editorial Notice 
in " The Students' Journal," N. Y. City. 



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